Margo Rey Talks About Her Love of Spicy Food and The Peppers in Her Purse

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Besides being a talented singer, Margo Rey is also quite a chef. She even took cooking lessons in Florence, Italy a few summers ago as a gift to herself. Now when the weather gets hot, Margo says she gets nostalgic for days experimenting in the kitchen.

The singer, whose new album, Habit, is out now and features John Oates, told CBS Local as an artist who makes her living on the road, there’s nothing better then sitting down and sharing a meal with the ones you love.

“[Musicians] make their living in crowded spaces,” she said. “The best part of coming home is being able to have a nice group of friends over and relax with a good meal.”

When Margo comes home she often tweets details of her cooking escapades from making a veggie soufflé for her husband, comedian Ron White, to perfecting her summer dishes.

When it comes to buying her fish, she stays local, visiting her favorite seafood market in Santa Barbara, Kanaloa, twice a week to pick up the catch of the day.

“The tough part is really just making yourself go there and not go crazy buying everything that’s fresh,” she said.

Margo says her signature dishes, which can easily be made vegetarian, use Provencal herbs like basil, along with spices like curry. But her cooking is most influenced by her Mexican upbringing. Her favorite meal to make has to be her mole, a peanut, chocolate, and sesame seed sauce with five different kinds of dried chiles.

The singer likes her food spicy, joking that she was surprised she didn’t keep a jalapeño in her purse, just in case of emergencies. Something her aunts actually used to do.

The first time a young Margo saw one of her aunts take a pepper out of her bag, she was mortified, but now she gets it.

“You start getting addicted to that spice,” she explained. “It’s good stuff.”